


Found Notebook

by tarigwaemir (troisroyaumes)



Category: Eternal Sabbath
Genre: Gen, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-20
Updated: 2006-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-29 16:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/322097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/troisroyaumes/pseuds/tarigwaemir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Excerpts from the laboratory notebook of Dr. Kujou Mine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Found Notebook

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [amanuensis challenge](http://obakesan.livejournal.com/132860.html).

_[cover]_

 ****

Dr. Kujou Mine  
Department of Neurophysiology  
Touhou Medical Center

\---

 _[page 18]_

020423  
Group mtg.

Hippocampal lesion case study  
      Effect on retrieval correlates with age when lesion occurred  
      Discrepancies in localization of hippocampal activation - too much damage?  
      Temporal gradient associated with recency of memory (more stat. anal. to come)  
      Compare with fMRI scans  
      Control group needs assessment

Nakayama et al, 2002  
    Prosopagnosia = inability to recognize faces  
       visual processing defect  
       developmental (possibly genetic) and acquired, many possible causes  
       also a semantic memory defect? - search for imaging studies

 

TO-DO  
\- Book MEG machine (03-6884-2439)  
\- Obtain liability forms for hypnosis study, place ad for participants  
\- Email Hackett - induction procedures  
\- Prof. Masuyama mtg. Tues. @ 3

fMRI vs. PET - fMRI is novel technology and still in development but PET requires radioactive tracers. Discuss with Prof. Masuyama.

\---

 _[page 67]_

020507  
7 subjects resistant to hypnotic suggestion (see p. 32 for profiles)  
    #A165    #A192  
    #A223    #A257  
    #B024    #B145  
    #B201

1 in 5 of general population cannot be hypnotized (cf. Spiegel, 2001).

Twin studies suggest hypnotizability is genetic and heritable. Candidate gene COMT (catechol–o-methioninehyltransferase), implicated in dopaminergic synapses (reduces extrasynaptic neurotransmitter levels) and lowering dorsolateral prefrontal lobe activity.

Selective forces on hypnotizability? Studies by Raz et al. suggest hypnosis is correlated with attention processes. Hypnosis -> resolving conflict between contradictory stimuli. Consider: neural circuitry responsible for susceptibility to suggestion permits ability to focus and habituate to complex environment. A social domain involved as well? - susceptibility to suggestion encourages consensus within a community. ~~Mob mentality.~~ Given highly subjective nature of perception and involvement of a priori modules in sensory processing, it is necessary to establish accepted consensus on what is being perceived. It becomes of increasing importance as humans develop sophisticated communication via language - how to find a word for "red" when red is not red for everyone (i.e. color blindness)? Consensus, and hence communication, achieved by suggestion - that color deemed red will be called red. More to the point, ability to ignore contradicting information is what streamlines social interactions and makes efficient leadership possible.

Amazing to think how our reality is dependent on the black-box working of the mind and its vulnerable biological wetware.

  
Let's restrict ourselves to  
falsifiable hypotheses.   


MEG and fMRI scans scheduled for next week. Run through standard battery of memory tests on all groups this week.

\---

 _[page 78]_

 _[fMRI scan images of brain activity in normal, hypnotic and post-hypnotic states]_

\---

 _[page 81]_

 _[MEG scan data of brain activity during memory tests taken in normal and hypnotic state]_

\---

 _[page 86]_

TO-DO LIST  
\- Analyze MEG and fMRI data  
\- Interview subjects for aphasia case study  
\- Kurosagi seminar lecture @ 1 - gender-based differences in episodic memory

Imaging studies suggest hypnotic state involves broad activation of occipital, parietal and prefrontal lobes. Significantly decreased activity in medial parietal cortex. No hippocampal activation - hypnotic mechanism separate from memory. (Is it possible to distinguish between false memory introduced by hypnotic suggestion and true memory? - is this involved in resistance to hypnosis?) Hypnotic state activates sensory and motor pathways in absence of stimuli: processing without input. In this sense, similar to dreaming and other altered states of consciousness.

Predominantly visual processing: neural imaging of hypnotic state resembles activity during visual imagination supported by descriptions of vivid mental imagery during hypnotic state. Not surprising - human consciousness dependent predominantly on sense of sight. (Have there been hypnosis studies with blind subjects?)

Hypnosis also associated with increased plasticity. Halsband study on learning under hypnosis: hypnotized group better at learning word associations. Hypnotizability may also be associated with better learning in normal conscious state. Logical to see connection between flexibility of cognitive processes and flexibility of sensory consciousness. Correlation to memory has yet to be determined. Are hypnotizable subjects better at encoding and retrieving visual memories? Hypnosis as therapeutic

\---

 _[page 87]_

tool for repressed memories. However formal psychological studies suggest more influence in implicit memory (conditioned responses, reflexes, motor memory) - unconscious memory

consciousness         attention         perception  
       learning       memory

Hypnosis alters our "construction"  
of reality, changes the boundary of  
conscious and unconscious, creates  
perception without input and  
reduces perception of input.

But reality is not immediate but temporal; a continuum built of discrete sensations. Memory is a foundation for consciousness. Alter memory -> alter reality.

 

ANOVA test on subject response time to word retrieval  
    (consult Shuuhei on regression model!)

**Author's Note:**

> A laboratory notebook is a long-standing tradition in scientific research, before the days of humongous data sets and computer records. Its usage differs slightly from person to person, but it's meant to provide a faithful record of one's experiments and data. I tend to neglect my lab notebook shamefully and only record the most mundane and irrelevant details. But my faculty mentor, who is very organized, keeps meticulous records in her lab notebook about her experimental plans, analysis of her results, meeting and lecture notes. The post-doc I work with is more casual in his notebook upkeep, but he has a habit of writing out his train of thought, particularly in experiment planning stages. As you can see, I borrowed from both models.


End file.
